Giant Magnetoresistance and Coercivity of electrodeposited multilayered FeCoNi/Cu and CrFeCoNi/Cu

The effect of Cr addition on electrodeposited multilayered nanowires CrFeCoNi/Cu was investigated from a magnetic property perspective: current perpendicular to the plane-Giant Magnetoresistance (CPP-GMR) and Coercivity (BH loops). The magnetic behavior of multilayered nanowires of CrFeNiCo/Cu was also affected by the alloy deposition potential, alloy pulsing time (layer thickness) and number of bilayers. Furthermore, the addition of Cr influenced both the nanowires GMR and Coercivity. Cr addition to the ferromagnetic FeCoNi layer induced a reduction in the room temperature GMR from 10.64% to 5.62%; however, the magnetic saturation field decreased from 0.45 to 0.27 T. The increase in the number of bilayers, from 1000 to 2500, resulted in a higher GMR value, 14.56% with 0.35 T magnetic saturation field. Addition of Cr to the ferromagnetic layer decreased the coercivity from 0.015 to 0.0054 T. Low saturation field CPP-GMR nanowires showing low coercivity at room temperature opens a new door for magnetic sensing devices. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study on electrodeposited CrFeCoNi/Cu multilayered nanowires. Published by Elsevier B.V.